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Thursday, 29 January 2015

Mexico shuts down Chinese 'mega-mall' project in Cancun

Mexico
has ordered closed a massive construction project in Cancun that would have
created the largest venue for selling Chinese goods in the Americas.

In
the works since 2013 but opposed by environmentalists and others, the $200
million Dragon Mart mega-mall would have covered nearly 1,400 acres and housed
3,040 exhibition spaces for more than 1,000 vendors, most of them Chinese.

After
a long legal battle, however, Mexico's federal environmental protection agency
said the project had done serious harm to the Cancun area's sensitive beaches
and seaside flora.

"We
can determine with all clarity that the activities the developers were
conducting have deteriorated, impacted and damaged conditions of ecological
balance, forest ecosystem and biodiversity of the zone," Guillermo Haro,
federal prosecutor for environmental protection, said Tuesday at a news
conference.

He
said about 370 acres had been badly damaged just south of Cancun, one of
Mexico's top tourist destinations.

In
addition to ordering the project shut down, the environmental agency is fining
Dragon Mart the equivalent of about $1.5 million. Haro called the penalty
"historic" and said the Dragon Mart owners could also face a criminal
prosecution, with sentences of up to nine years.

Speaking
to the Los Angeles Times in 2013, Dragon Mart's executive director Juan Carlos
Lopez compared the planned retail center to a giant, permanent "trade show
in Vegas."

On
Wednesday, Lopez told the Times that he considered the shutdown temporary and
that his company will continue to fight the decision in court. Dragon Mart was
being financed by a consortium of Mexican developers and a Dutch-registered
firm run by a Chinese businessman.

The
city government of Cancun originally denied Dragon Mart a building permit, but
the developers obtained relief through the courts and by appealing to state and
federal governments more sympathetic to the project and keen on growing trade
with China.

In
the current judgment, however, federal authorities acknowledged they erred
earlier and reversed themselves.

Environmentalists
welcomed the decision. The Mexican Environmental Law Center said the move set
an important precedent by requiring builders to get permits and respect
environmental impact, steps developers in Mexico routinely skirt.

"Development
projects are very necessary in our country to promote growth and job
creation," the center's representative in the Cancun area, Alejandra
Serrano Pavon, said in a statement. But "development must come with a
vision of sustainability."